Baroness Deech, a family law professor and crossbench peer, last week highlighted the fact that marriage between first cousins leaves children more at risk of genetic defects. She has called for a public campaign to deter the practice, which is prevalent in Muslim and immigrant communities
British Pakistanis represent three per cent of all births in Britain, but disproportionately they make up one-third of children with recessive disorders
A report last year by the March of Dimes Foundation found that the most common birth defects were congenital heart defects, neural tube defects such as spina bifida, and haemoglobinopathies such as sickle-cell anaemia.
The report proposes that introducing folic acid supplementation to prevent neural tube defects and iodination of salt to prevent severe congenital hypothyroidism could produce an immediate and significant reduction in disability and ill-health
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